he road to the NFL Draft is longer in 2014 than any other offseason given the league's decision to push it back a few weeks to May 8-10. For the next three months, draftniks will circle around prospects like hawks, analyzing their every move and weighing the pros and cons of each player.

The process starts en masse this week with the start of the 2014 NFL Combine in Indianapolis. If you love the Draft, then this is a big week for you.

For those who are new to the NFL Combine, it's a seven-day event broken up into four-day shifts for each position group (quarterbacks to punters). Each group comes to Indy for four days to meet with representatives from each NFL team for medical assessments, interviews and a number of workouts. It's termed the Underwear Olympics for that reason, as teams fall in and out of love with prospects based on 40-yard dash times and vertical leaps.

With the first arrivals coming on Wednesday, that puts the first day of workouts on Saturday.

The players invited

Every top college football player will likely be in attendance in Indianapolis, even if some of the top athletes won't participate in the workouts. The NFL invited over 300 players to attend. Teddy Bridgewater to Jadeveon Clowney, your favorite college players will likely be there.

Participants are determined annually by a Selection Committee. The Directors of both National and BLESTO scouting services, which combined represent twenty-five NFL teams, are joined by members of various NFL player personnel departments to form the committee. The participating NFL executives can rotate on a yearly basis, and remain anonymous. ALL eligible players are reviewed and voted on by the committee members. Each athlete receiving the necessary number of votes, by position, is then extended an invitation. While it is not a perfect science, the goal of the committee is to invite every player that will be drafted in the ensuing NFL Draft.

You can find the full list of players expected to attend at the bottom of this post. While the list is comprehensive, there are a few players every year who are drafted but didn't get invited to the Combine.

The workouts

The most important one is not a workout -- it's the interview. Teams will have the opportunity to interview players where they'll get about 15 minutes with them. With so little time, the questions have to be precise and all have a purpose.

The second most important item there is getting the medical check-up -- essentially confirming that the player is healthy or checking out previous injuries. Team doctors will want this information so the GMs and coaches can make an informed decision.

40-yard dash: Measures straight line speed over a distance. Not very important for non-skill position players, but coming from the 40-yard dash is the "10-yard split." That is the time it takes to travel the first 10 yards of the event and gives a measurement as to the player's explosion and first step. Very important for defensive and offensive linemen. Dontari Poe had a 10-yard split of 1.7 at 330 pounds, which is decent for a linebacker.Bruce Irvin at 235 pounds had a 10-yard split of 1.57, which is a good number for a defensive back. Both help push those players into the middle of the first round.

Bench press: Fairly simple, it measures upper body strength. Moreso it shows if you have stayed in good condition over the offseason. Poor numbers here possibly indicate not working hard enough.

Vertical and Broad jump: Another measurement of explosion and lower body strength. Also important for wide receivers and defensive backs to show off their leaping ability.

3-cone drill: Essentially a change of direction drill. Most important for skill position players. Shows off lateral agility and ability to accelerate out of a turn. One of the drills that translates best on the field. A good score in the 3 cone is often a marker for a high draft pick.

20/60-yard shuttles: Shows the ability to come to a complete stop and accelerate. Obviously important for any position and a good score here is indicative of explosion and body control. As you can see, explosion is a big factor here and one that the NFL is keen to see.

Position-specific drills: Each position has specific drills that test for many different attributes. Change of direction and hip swing for defensive backs, hands skills for wide receivers during the "gauntlet," kick slide drills for the offensive linemen, power for the defensive linemen in hitting bag drills and accuracy for quarterbacks in throwing drills.

How do I watch the Combine?

NFL Network will televise some of it.

NFL.com will stream the action.

KCChiefs.com will have full video of Andy Reid and John Dorsey's press conferences but will not stream them live.

Dude Brandin Cooks has the same hand size as Evans. Wow. It's gotta be obvious to this front office that our free agent dollars should go towards the defense and we find pass catcher in this hell of a draft.

how do you think that will fare against "no huddle" offenses which limit the ability for defenses to substitute?

Also, since he is suggesting a hybrid d, would that make Aaron Donald a role player or a starter? Would you be ok drafting a player in the 1st round who is only playing limited snaps?

Seattle drafted Bruce Irvin, a "situational" pass rusher, high in the 1st round and signed a whole bunch of "situational" pass rushers. Who just won the Super Bowl with an absolutely dominant defense?

I could care less how many snaps Donald plays, I'd actually prefer that he not play on run downs and stay rested in order to be at 100% on passing plays. Hell, I don't want any of our DL players to log more than 60% of snaps through out the season. As long as Donald's snaps are coming in the 2nd half when we have to hold onto a lead while playing on passing downs in the 1st, I am completely fine with that.

I guarantee you that Luck does not lead that comeback against us had Donald been on the field, terrorizing the middle of their line in the second half. I could care less about getting a "3-down" lineman who can dominate at 5-tech in the first quarter only to disappear in the second half. You want a 5-tech? Go sign a vet who already knows how to play it at the NFL level. Give me the most dominant 1-gap penetrator over any 5-tech project and let me turn him loose on opposing QBs in the second half when they are trying to mount a comeback.

That is the biggest reason why I want to draft Donald, he truly gives you that element vs Tuitt and Hageman who are both honestly too slow to get to the QB without great coverage on the backside helping them out. Donald is a guy who can make up for poor coverage and get into the QB's head; no way that Manning will be able to step up in the pocket with Donald and Poe collapsing the middle.

Seattle drafted Bruce Irvin, a "situational" pass rusher, high in the 1st round and signed a whole bunch of "situational" pass rushers. Who just won the Super Bowl with an absolutely dominant defense?

first, Irvin was 6'3'', 245lbs who ran the forty at 4.41 seconds. He is like an OLB....not comparable to Aaron Donald.

second, Seatle's defense is a complete team, and I think their defensive success can be attributed more to their outstanding db play more than their line. For the regular season, they had 44 sacks, tied for 8th in the NFL. Chiefs had 46 sacks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldSchool

I could care less how many snaps Donald plays, I'd actually prefer that he not play on run downs and stay rested in order to be at 100% on passing plays. Hell, I don't want any of our DL players to log more than 60% of snaps through out the season. As long as Donald's snaps are coming in the 2nd half when we have to hold onto a lead while playing on passing downs in the 1st, I am completely fine with that.

I dont think the chiefs can dictate such scenarios. Chiefs have a much harder schedule this yr. Games will likely be close. Opportunities to substitute will be limited because opposing qbs will take advantage of such situations (i.e. they will hand off when you go into a light defense not built to defend the run).

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldSchool

I guarantee you that Luck does not lead that comeback against us had Donald been on the field, terrorizing the middle of their line in the second half.

your speak in hyperbole that is illogical. you can make guarantees about the past. That is a propaganda technique called "unprovable statements." Further, the failings had to do more with the teams awful pass coverage than their pass rush.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldSchool

I could care less about getting a "3-down" lineman who can dominate at 5-tech in the first quarter only to disappear in the second half. You want a 5-tech? Go sign a vet who already knows how to play it at the NFL level. Give me the most dominant 1-gap penetrator over any 5-tech project and let me turn him loose on opposing QBs in the second half when they are trying to mount a comeback.

I am pretty sure that Sutton has his lineman 2-gapping, not 1-gapping.